ro 



ANTS. 



groups ( I'oncrinae) or in species that form small colonies, as in the 

 opulent formicaries of the more highly specialized genera (Myrmica, 

 Aphcenogaster, l : nnica, Camponotus, etc.). This classification seems 

 to he an e\])ression of a need for different degrees of moisture and 

 temperature in different developmental stages, as Janet has shown 

 (1904. pp. 38, 30.). lie sa\>: " In regard to the degree of humidity 

 most favorahle for each class of progeny, I have made the following 

 observation on artificial nests of a porous substance, in which the hu- 

 midity was very regularly graduated, and containing a populous colony 

 of Mynnica ntbra Ucnnodis, with extremely numerous offspring. The 



FIG. 36. Larv;e of Pogonomyrmex molefaciens, magnified about 5 diameters. 



i Original.) 



larva- of medium and large size had been placed on the floor of a very 

 damp chamber. In the less humid neighboring chamber, enormous 

 packets of eggs were found at the bottom of the wall, and above them, 

 attached by their hooked hairs, were all the just-hatched larva?. All 

 the pupie were in the even dryer adjacent chamber." As the ants are 

 continually shifting their young about in the nest in response to 

 diurnal changes of moisture and temperature, bringing them nearer the 

 surface during the warm hours of the day and carrying them below 

 during the cooler nights, the classification in wild colonies is best seen 

 only when the weather has been unusually constant for several days. 



The eggs of ants are minute bodies, hardly more than .5 mm. long 

 even in the largest species, and usually much smaller. They are com- 

 monly overlooked by the casual observer who applies the term "ants' 



